Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has written one of the most compelling explanations of the need to reform the welfare system in today’s Daily Mail.
There is little that I can add to his Lordship’s words, which quite clearly explain why it is socially and morally irresponsible to allow the continued creep of welfare dependency. It is, of course, right that people on benefits should not have a higher income than those who are working hard to support their family, but even more importantly it is in the best interests of those in receipt of benefits to make sure that, where they can work, they do so.
As the Centre for Social Justice has demonstrated very clearly, long-term unemployment leads to increased mental health problems, higher rates of addiction, family breakdown and crime. It is a fundamental plank of building a stronger society that everyone in that society must feel that have a valuable contribution to make to it – and a big part of that is being economically active.
The economic and fairness arguments in favour of the Government’s reforms are obvious but the social and moral imperatives for them are more subtle and I applaud Lord Carey for setting out the case so plainly.
Filed under: Big Society, Welfare & Pensions Tagged: | archbishop of canterbury, benefits cap, broken society, daily mail, george carey, lord carey, welfare reform
It is indeed right that anyone should not get more money on benefits than if they were in work. But all this gives out negative thoughts that everyone on benefits gets £26,000.
We have to remember that carers Allowance is £55.55 a week and many people dont even qualify or indeed know that they are a carer.
Surely the blame lies on governments, past and present, who have allowed people to receive such high payments when they don’t work.
Not everyone receiving benefits is on £26,000 a year, but 50,000 households do receive more than this figure. In terms of carers, those who live with someone in receipt of DLA (which many do) will be exempt from the cap. Those who are caught by the cap will still be entitled to the Carers Allowance provided that the total amount of benefit paid to the household does not exceed £500 a week (i.e. £26,000 a year).
You are absolutely right that the blame lies with previous governments for the high payments that people are receiving and it now falls to this government to do so something about it.